It is no secret Facebook has made many changes over the past few months to eliminate low-quality content from its News Feed. At first, the changes were directly related to eliminating content that could be seen as “Clickbait.”

What is Clickbait - Clickbait is a pejorative term describing web content that is aimed at generating online advertising revenue, especially at the expense of quality or accuracy, relying on sensationalist headlines to attract click-throughs and to encourage forwarding of the material over online social networks.

Facebook is very well aware that their users don’t like misleading, sensational or spammy stories, especially when the headline is clickbait. The platform is continuing their campaign to improve the user experience just days after announcing penalties to content producers that have a low-quality website experience. Penalties will now be applied to content producers who use clickbait headlines that withhold and/or exaggerate information in an effort to get users on their website.

You should only be worried about this update if your Facebook posts utilizes clickbait headlines. Facebook provided two specific examples that can help paint a picture of what clickbait can look like.

“When She Looked Under Her Couch Cushions And Saw THIS…”

“WOW! Ginger tea is the secret to everlasting youth. You’ve GOT to see this!”


“Like us if you love chocolate!” - Knowing that most everyone does love chocolate and that Likes gained in such a way don’t actually reflect the quality of the content, this is a practice Facebook is looking to eliminate, Facebook is calling this and similar actions that bait users to share or vote “Engagement Bait” and will demote such posts and pages within the News Feed.

Generally speaking, Facebook will leverage an advanced machine-learning algorithm to police the News Feed. This technology was built based on tens of thousands of posts that were reviewed and flagged by humans. By applying machine learning to this data, Facebook feels confident it will improve the content you see every day. As an advertiser, know that this type of content will be flagged almost immediately, preventing it from being promoted.

If you have a business that depends on organic posts for visibility, you may need to revisit your strategy. There will undoubtedly be fewer opportunities for you to appear within the News Feed, so to continue to reach Facebook’s audience, you’ll need to avoid posting engagement bait completely.

Brands that have previously seen good organic reach within the News Feed will need to assess what they’re losing due to this shift and determine if capturing the lost audiences is worth additional investment. With Facebook already a mainstay in many brands’ media plans, a business may decide to shift budget previously allocated to other channels.

We hope you find this useful for your next Facebook post tactics.